The Bride Chapter 1, The First and the Last Bride

John Baptist on the bridegroom John  3:29

A man can receive only what is given to him from heaven. You yourselves can testify what I said, “I am not the messiah, (Christ) but am sent ahead of Him. The Bride belongs to the Bridegroom. The friend who attends the Bridegroom waits and listens for Him, and is full of joy when he hears the Bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine and it is now complete. He must become greater, I must become less important.”

1. Creation, Eve the first Bride- one flesh, helper, partner.  Revelation, the wedding feast of the Lamb. Beginning and end followed by a new beginning. Circle of Life. The end is the beginning. This is not a spiral, it is a circle, like the continuous revolution of the earth around the sun. Like every new day.

Above all, let’s always keep in the forefront of our minds that our awesome God is the Father and Creator of everything on earth and throughout the universe. One only needs to read Saint Basil the Great’s compilation of talks in the book, Hexameron, about the six days of creation to get a glimpse of the enormity and majesty of this planet, and the universe. In these pages Saint Basil could impress the most dedicated modern scientist with his fourth century vast knowledge of astronomy, biology and botany and other sciences. His writing transports us immediately to the astounding brilliance, and creativity of the Creator of it all. And how, by recognizing the specificity of nature, the brilliance of human intelligence each one of us is instantly diminished by comparison, and the value of humility is ignited in us.

To fully perceive, as through a high powered microscope, a tiny square of the complex brilliance of life on earth, such a revelation would Only introduce us to the magnificence of God. Such awareness immediately diminishes our sense of self importance in favor of the infinite intelligence of the Creator, Who condescended to become human in His Son, thus demonstrating the essential value of humility. Imagine lightening becoming a candle…to the power of 1000. It is from this perspective that we can begin to learn about the Bride as embodied by Eve, the ever-virgin Mary, and the new Jerusalem.

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Adam - How long did he live as a single man on earth, naming every animal, feeding himself on plants and nuts, surveying the creation, walking, running, thinking, eating? All alone, watching the animals and creatures in their busy activities, doing much the same as he, but with families, reproducing at various rates to fill the new world. How long was it before Eve was made for him? A week, a year? Ten years of time? God only knows. But this matters.

If Adam named every moving life form, then he had words. He thought in words, making up his own language, the first language. God observed him and when the time was right, whether it was a week or years alone, God determined that it was time to make him a helper. Adam’s time alone must end. He should have someone to talk to and to help him build and plant and cook.

Adam yielded to being anesthetized in jubilation over the promise of having a mate, a soul mate, a helper. When he woke up she was there before him fully grown just as he was when he was created on the sixth day, as every created animal was made in full. If God can create a planet and a star and a moon out of nothing, or is anyone so foolish as to think these celestial bodies all evolved naturally from dust, then God can create the first animals and the humans as Michelangelo sculpted David and the Pieta from rock hard marble. Poof, two mature human beings made in His own image and likeness, the crown of His creation. Men are not animals, our souls make us tiny replicas of God by design and by potential.

When Adam first awoke and saw her leaning over him looking at his face with a smile, their eyes met. A tear fell down Adam’s cheek, the tear of relief from loneliness. Joy and gratitude burst forth from his heart. Eve was to Adam the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Adam sat up and then stood to embrace her. Naked arms holding naked arms. Adam’s hard muscles enveloped Eve’s delicate new skin. The release. Adam took her hand in his, fingers entwined as they walked around paradise. Adam showed her the flowers and trees that he had named, nasturtium, zinnias, roses. Her sparkling alert green eyes soaked in the beauty surrounding them. Puppies  and gerbils scurried over to greet her. Adam plucked a soft fig from the tree and handed it to her to eat. Then he plucked one for himself and showed her how to peel it and bite into the sweet red fruit; bliss. When Eve tasted the fruit her eyes opened wider at the sensation of the figs’ taste. Their first day together was a day of fascination of creation for Eve and as a reminder for Adam. Eve was elated. At the end of the day, as darkness closed in, Eve was frightened by the loss of light and looked at Adam as if to say, “What is happening?” Nothing prepared her for the sunset and rising of the moon, and the stars that sparkled to decorate the night sky. Adam took her hand and walked Eve over to his bed. They lay down together on Adam’s contoured bed of grassy earth that he had made for himself and after looking up at the thousands of sparkling stars in the sky, they gently fell asleep, his arm drawing her close, his chest serving as her pillow. She could hear his heartbeat with fascination. They woke up at sunrise, their second day together.

As the weeks went by Adam taught her to speak his language. God smiled watching them. How they enjoyed each other and the earth and the sun, moon, and stars! The couple had been placed in paradise. Adam adored Eve for the relief she brought him from a gnawing loneliness, a form of melancholy that he never understood but always felt as he was naming each animal male and female who had each other and were reproducing rapidly. Eve loved Adam for his beauty and strength, his kindness and meekness.

Eve was so naive that she thought nothing of it when the serpent appeared and spoke to her. No other animal had ever spoken to her, in their thoughts, like extra sensory perception as did this animal. Everything being new, why should a speaking serpent be unusual?

The serpent’s suggestion and her thoughtless compliance, like dripping poison spilled over onto her beloved partner Adam, who received it with equal thoughtlessness. Together they committed the unforgivable crime of placing themselves above their Father God. They replaced trust in He who created their paradise out of darkness and void, with personal ambition.

Like good fathers after Him, God allowed them to fail. The failure was His curse of death. God  punished all of humanity that emanated from them for millennia. Eve helped Adam die.

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Revelation 19:8

The friend who attends the Bridegroom waits and listens for Him, and is full of joy when he hears the Bridegroom’s voice.

Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”—Fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Adam died and Eve died. The Lamb died. The son of Pharaoh died. Which was the last straw. Pharaoh could take no more; his stubbornness broke. His need for free labor and power melted in the anguish of his lost son, the hope of his successor. He let his slaves, the real source of his power, leave his country and his grasp. When he returned to his senses, it was too late. They were gone. His army chased after them; they drowned. Passover. Never forget Passover. Passover is key.

The Son of God died. The Lamb of God died. The new Passover resulted on a grander scale. The enemy still chases to bring the people back. It often wins this time. Sin didn’t end, only the slavery to sin ended.

Slavery to sin that causes death, ended. Humankind is freed to be able to follow the Son (like Joshua) to the Promise land. The new paradise. From that moment on, from Pascha, Passover, A.k.a. Easter, like crossing the Red Sea, death for Israel’s heirs became only a physical passing over to the holding place for the Saints, the residents of the new Jerusalem, and for those guests of the wedding feast whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Adam and his bride Eve, were released from the curse of death in Hades, along with all the other prisoners; they crossed the spiritual Red Sea and were set free from the power of death forevermore.

Jesus, the Messiah came to give life and freedom from oppression to the Jews first and then to the Greeks with all of humanity in line behind them.

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Jesus was a bachelor. Like Adam who named all the creatures and animals of the earth before he was given a bride, Jesus too has his role before being wed. Jesus reversed corruption. Corruption of God’s Creation came to earth in the form of illness, hatred and fear, death, and even physics. Jesus walked on water. He calmed the raging sea. He had no helper. No one else on earth was like him, just as no one else on earth was like Adam. Adam and Jesus were unique men on earth. They both accomplished much before being given a bride.

From Israel, the chosen people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and especially Jacob (Israel), God the Father and Creator gives His Son a bride who is the new Jerusalem. She is pure and beautiful beyond compare. She is comprised of the Saints and Martyrs from the beginning of time, I speculate that would include Moses, Noah, and the holy prophets.  She passed through the Sea and, following Joshua, (Yeshua), she reached the Promise Land, where she is preparing for the Wedding.

After all this time, the Son who was begotten before all time, is to be given a Bride. The wedding will surpass any earthly wedding. She is flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood.

Matthew 22:30 At the resurrection people will neither marry, nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

Let’s live our lives in such a manner as to be worthy of an invitation to the very last wedding.

May your name and mine be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Read on!

The Bride: Preface

Genesis 1:26 -30

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.

God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:18-25

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”  So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said,“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

From the very beginning, in the creation of man and woman they were united in the flesh by a shared rib. Bone of his bones. She was made to help him as his partner. Both their human bodies and her helpfulness were elements of their more sublime characteristics. Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and likeness. God is Love, God is Light, God is Intelligent, God is Sovereign. He is Reasonable, Emotional, Creative, Rational. God has so many characteristics that many theologians simplify by listing what He is not in order to understand Him better. This is called the apophatic description of God. Both the man and his bride were created to be like God. Not to be what He is not, i.e., selfish, hateful, arrogant, mean, deceitful, et cetera. Those characteristics come from the influence of the evil enemy who lured them away from God, and distorted the holy image of mankind by appealing to their egos and thus turned their sovereignty inward making themselves the center of their world instead of others, instead most importantly, their Creator who should be the center of their focus.

Revelation 19:6-7

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder peals, crying out,“Hallelujah! For the Lord God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”—Fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”  Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Revelation 21:9

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues said to me, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And then He carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down from out of heaven from God. It shown with the glory of God.

21:22-27 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, (first light) and the Lamb (Jesus) is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations (ethnicities) will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter into it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

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Before the creation of the universe, God spoke light into being out of darkness and void. Saint John the Evangelist said Jesus, the Lamb of God, is light of light, true God of true God, begotten before the foundation of the world. Before Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, Jesus, the Lamb of God was begotten, not made.

Between the creation of Eve, and the splendid wedding feast of the Lamb there lived a helper for God, the Virgin Mary. He planned for His Son, the spiritual light of light, to become human. The Son would not be made of the dust of the earth like Adam and appear out of nowhere, which God could have done. No, He wanted His Son to be born of a human woman.  He wanted His son to start as every human does, as a fertilized egg. When was God’s bride (helper) chosen? Could it have been while observing the faith of her parents, Joachim and Anna)? Or generations before, during the days of the beloved shepherd and king, David, their ancestor pleased God with his repentance and humility? Either way, chosen she was. Mary, the blessing to her elderly parents, dedicated to the Lord when weaned, grew up in a holy place; she became a woman pure and humble. She was chosen to be the vessel, the golden chalice of His only begotten Son.

When it was time for the Son to come to earth to heal us and to deliver us from death, Mary conceived this Holy Child by the power of the Holy Spirit. She helped God in His incarnation. In this sense she foreshadowed the Bride of the Lamb, being “wed” to God. No other honor could be bestowed upon a human, even of the highest social or political rank in glory, intelligence, and wealth than to serve the Creator of the universe by giving Him human birth.

Eve, the bride of Adam

Mary, the bride of the God

The Son too will have a bride, a partner and a helper from the future wedding through eternity.

In the Revelation to the Apostle John God said that Jerusalem is the bride of the Lamb of God who is Jesus, who was fully human and fully divine, who took on the sins of humanity, even the grave sins of His enemies, His betrayers, the Pharisees and priests who connived to kill Him and every other sinful person like any sacrificial lamb had to do, but more so because He did it knowingly, and willingly. He asked His Father to forgive them, for they knew not what were doing. Whereas the lamb received the sins of those looking for forgiveness and repentance.

We, who yearn to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and to be invited to the wedding supper are required to do no less than to love our enemies, those who offend us, hurt us, intentionally or not, because they too probably don’t know what they are doing, perhaps even those who try to kill us. Why? Because, by emulating Jesus, we show ourselves to be one with Him, in spirit and in truth. Such unity and love qualifies us to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and to receive that coveted wedding invitation. Not that we just read about these things, or go to beautiful churches and experience inspiring services, but that we actually live out His directions. The saints and martyrs show us that it is possible to overcome evil with good, to be one with Jesus, and thus to represent Him on earth. Jesus requires us to be salt of the living earth, that preserves life here in the war zone of earth from decay and corruption.

Who is this Bride, Jerusalem?

What is her story, the story of the millennia long betrothal period? The Bride is the subject of this book. As in the beginning when the bride of Adam was created to be a partner, his helper, the new holy Jerusalem, Zion, is as physical as the flesh of Jesus Christ’s flesh and bone of His bone, and as spiritual in His righteous characteristics. She is pure and always ready to help her Bridegroom and partner.

To initiate Holy Week, the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates two Bridegroom services, the evening of Palm Sunday, the second day of Creation, when the heavens were made; Jesus, the Bridegroom comes to us from heaven. And the following Monday evening, the third day of Creation when the earth and vegetation were made, Jesus comes to the earth. Jesus comes to humanity's from both heaven and to earth. Both His coming and going are celebrated before His rescuing and restoring crucifixion and His glorious resurrection.

Likewise, the Holy City Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God. She comes to the new earth, victorious and fully prepared for Her wedding. She comes to receive Her guests, the over-comers.

The Bride, Jerusalem, is place! The old Jerusalem was the place where Abraham obeyed God to sacrifice his long awaited promised son, Isaac, by which he proved his trust. The opposite of what Adam and Eve did. Jerusalem is the place of the Great Sacrifice, the Crucifixion, from where Jesus descended into Hades to release the captives of death, and the place of Resurrection. It is the city where Jesus distributed His body and blood in the form of bread and wine, for the remission of sins and for eternal life. It is where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon men of different languages and therefore ethnicities, to indwell  them with wisdom and guidance. The Bride is the City of God, waiting for the marriage feast where she will begin her new immortal and eternal life with Jesus.

How is a place, a person?

Jerusalem is the helper extraordinaire. As place, it is the mustard seed that became a tree that covers the whole earth. It is one out of many. The new Jerusalem will truly be a place of peace.

This is the Bride, my friend. As with one person She contains in her the History of western civilization, beauty, devotion, struggle, faith, blind-faith. As each human being from conception contains within him or her, a multitude of ancestors, so the bride contains within her the souls of the martyrs and Saints. More importantly, Her birth is from the rib of Her Bridegroom, and she always remembers that. The actual Body and Blood of Jesus, dispersed to His betrothed, those who suffered the old earth and won; it heals Her and strengthens Her. He is the source, She is the recipient and beloved. In humility, She receives His love and reflects it back to Him and to the new peaceful world.

The marriage of the Lamb to His bride, will consummate every moment in history leading up to it. The Holy Bridegroom and beautiful Bride will live together as husband and wife in joy, partners, one flesh, helper to Jesus-God forever in peace, because the enemy had been separated from them and all the guests whose names had been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Imagine all the ancestors that make up the infant come alive again and surround the baby, smiling down upon it. One person is made from thousands, like millions of cells that comprise the body. We are one, and we are many.

There is the Bride, Jerusalem, and there are the guests. Who are the worthy guests, the blessed witnesses at the Marriage Feast.

Think of any wedding. There is the Father of the Bride, the mother of the Bride. The Father and Mother of the Groom, their attendants, and the witnesses who are the guests.

The father and mother of new Jerusalem may be old Jerusalem with its watershed events that,  as lightening, illuminated and forever changed the darkened world.

Father and Mother of the Bridegroom - God and the ever-virgin Mary.

The Guest List

Matthew 25:31-34

When the Son of Man comes [back to earth for the second time] in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,”

Because of their Works

Feed the Hungry

Quench the Thirsty

Welcome Strangers

Clothed the Naked

Visit prisoners

Matthew 25:41

Then He will say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

How tragic to live a life on earth only to be excluded from the Lamb’s Book of Life, a.k.a. The guest list to the wedding of weddings, followed by eternal life on the new earth with the Bride and the Bridegroom who is the Messiah, the Christ - Jesus. The revelation to the beloved disciple John, was very specific in identifying those who are not only not worthy of an invitation, but the tragedy is their eternal suffering. There is no reason to be angry at the evil ones who pepper this old earth, for their punishment will be much worse than their most heinous crimes.

Characteristics of the damned souls

Revelation 21:8

But the COWARDLY, UNBELIEVING, ABOMINABLE, MURDERERS, SEXUALLY IMMORAL,  MAGICIANS/SORCERERS, IDOLATORS, AND ALL LIARS shall have their part in the fiery lake of burning sulphur which is the second death. 

Eternal life on a new earth will certainly be blissful without all those who, knowingly or unknowingly, corrupted God’s image and likeness in themselves.

All that aside, this book highlights only the Bride to inspire and guide us to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, whether in the illustrious Bride, or as blessed guests of the Wedding. All the victorious inhabitants, who will live forever on the planet, the new earth, with many mansions and levels, who were judged to be worthy. Pure Life!

Read it and thrive.

Postscript to ALIVE

God is Amazing!

Actually He is awesome, but I say amazing because I like the A and Z in the same word. Alpha and Omega.

This book has taken over nine years to write. I started in May of 2015 during the month after Pascha, and finished on Pentecost, June 23, 2024.

God brought together the writing of the last chapter. Knowing how little time I had to finish it between Ascension and Pentecost, He started early.

My precious new grandson, William, was born last October. The name William corresponds in Greek with Basil which is his baptismal name. So, I figured I would start reading St Basil.

I read three books, each has been brilliant; the most recent is Hexameron, the 6 days of creation. I have always been big on creation week; linking it to Holy Week is my favorite way to worship God with prostrations as the first act when I come into my chapel each morning. I link each day of Creation week with Holy Week because the coincidences are astounding. I imagine that God likes it that I noticed.

I finished Hexameron the day before Pentecost when I wanted to post the last Chapter. This book, more than all the theology books I have read, gave me a glimpse into the infinite intelligence of God. Worth reading. For the last chapter of ALIVE I included Saint Basil’s explanation of the soullessness of fish and the soulfulness, albeit the absence of reason, of terrestrials animals.

Also, I read the Bible in order from Genesis to Revelation. At this point I am in Esdras 2 because my New Oxford Annotated Bible contains the Apocrypha. The excerpt I read the day before was perfect and included, as it perfectly described our existence on earth and the transition to the next life. My husband and I are in a psalmist group that reads 2 Kathisma every evening, and we happened to be beginning again and so Psalm 1, which is also perfectly relevant is included.

The timing of those readings while preparing to write the chapter about Pentecost on the day before Pentecost showed me that the Lord orchestrated the grand finale of this epic book, ALIVE, in His inimitable and marvelous ways. He never ceases to amaze me.

Overall, writing ALIVE has allowed me to imagine the daily lives of the most important people who ever lived on this earth. The Bible needed to be extremely concise, so a lot of valuable information had to be omitted. ALIVE has given me, and I hope gives the reader too, deeper insights into these holy people. In particular, Noah, David, Joachim and Anna, and their daughter Mary felt so alive and close to me that I feel that I know them as intimately as I know my family and friends. I came to truly love them and look forward to meeting them some day.

Expanding the life of Jesus in the same way was frightening, but also extremely valuable in helping me to know and understand HIM better. He handled every situation brilliantly, but most of all I love His sense of humor and brashness.

The other astonishing coincidence, is that after all these years of writing before dawn and having amassed a plethora of stories, without any time to get them out into the world, the completion of this epic book coincides with my planning of retirement from the day job. After 50 years of work in the world. I will soon have the time to focus on God’s work. Opus Dei. Another holy coincidence!

Pentecost is the gift of eternal life. What can be better than having Wisdom and Life dwell within to protect, guide, and teach us. To experience Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is to become immortal. ALIVE. How fitting to end…at the beginning.

Evangeline 2,024 Washington, D.C.

ALIVE: Chapter 188 The Law, the Son, and the Spirit

Locking the gates of Paradise behind Him after expelling Adam and Eve, God ascended to His throne room in heaven to observe from afar the theater that is the earth and all of His creation, the vegetation and trees, the soulless sea creatures, the emotional land animals lacking reason, and the fallen human destined to live in vain and descend into Hades.

Thousands of years went by before God was ready to lift humanity from the quagmire of ignorance by giving Moses the Torah and the Law.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the council of the ungodly

Nor stands in the path of sinners

Nor sits in the seats of the scoffers

But his delight is in the law of the Lord

And in His law he meditates day and night

….

2 Esdras 7:3-17

I said, “Speak, my lord.” And he said to me. “There is a sea set in a wide expanse so that it is deep and vast, but it has an entrance set in a narrow place, so that it is like a river. If there are those who wish to reach the sea, to look at it or to navigate it, how can they come to the broad part unless they pass through the narrow part?” Another example: There is a city built and set on a plain, and it is full of all good things; but the entrance to it is narrow and set in a precipitous place, so that there is fire on the right hand and deep water on the left. There is only one path lying between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that only one person can walk on the path. If now the city is given to someone as an inheritance, how will the heir receive the inheritance unless by passing through the appointed danger?”

I said,  “That is right, lord.” He said to me, “So also is Israel’s portion. For I made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed My statutes, what had been made was judged. And so the entrances of this world were made narrow and sorrowful and toilsome; they are few and evil, full of dangers and involved in great hardships.  But the entrances of the greater world are broad and safe, and yield the fruit of immortality. Therefore unless the living pass through the difficult and futile experiences, they can never receive those things that have been reserved for them (I.e., the greater world). Now therefore why are you disturbed, seeing that you are to perish? Why are you moved, seeing that you are mortal? Why have you not considered in your mind what is to come, rather than what is now present?”

Then I answered and said, “O sovereign Lord, you have ordained in your law that the righteous shall inherit these things, but the ungodly shall perish. The righteous, therefore, can endure difficult circumstances while hoping for easier ones but those who have done wickedly have suffered the difficult circumstances and will never see the easier ones.”

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One: the Law.

The Law is Life. Knowing what the Creator expects from His simple replicas was the first step closer to restoring Adam’s relationship with God, the relationship he had before the death sentence. Before Adam and Eve chose to disobey, because they distrusted God and chose rather to trust the serpent. Instead of one command, there would be ten, and then hundreds. Undoing the knowledge of good and evil is impossible. Each knowledgeable human being needs to squeeze through the treacherous evil to arrive at the wide place of hope and peace in the Lord God, and immortality, to receive the original design from humanity’s creator.

Naturally people, sometimes and some rabbis misinterpreted the law, or simply ignored it or disobeyed the law. But it was there, the law was as the north star shining brightly in the dark night sky. The chosen people of God who were granted this golden gift wanted to obey the law. They formed synagogues and the Temple where they worshipped and taught each other about their one and only God during the centuries when most human beings made their own gods to worship, even worshipping created nature.

Prophets arose, holy men and brave women heard God speak to them and relayed the messages to the chosen, the Jews. They lived in a world drenched in the juice of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, a zillion egos and wars, slavery, and ignorance, the narrow path.

The Law was the link, like a luminous rope to heaven to help them rise above the knowledge of good and evil. Moses taught them and led them. To the tribes of Jacob, Moses was like the moon shining in the night, with enough light to see where they came from and how to walk toward their God. The people fell and got up again, over and over and over again. They angered their God over and over, and then He forgave them in their repentance and blessed them over and over and over. The pressure from the evil one was too great to keep them from falling. They were like infants learning to walk after crawling.

Two: Jesus.

The next step up to reunion occurred when God visited the earth more than a thousand years later. Born as an infant, Jesus interacted with humankind by teaching, healing and performing miracles to show us the power of the original design. He was called the Son of God, and the Son of Man.

More importantly, the Son expiated the evil sin of disobedience and distrust that caused death, and then He overcame death by opening the gates of Hades to release the captives there, and resurrected Himself. He returned to the earth and His brethren to proove His victory. Through Jesus, God gave mankind the option of immortality. Jesus took the law to the next step of reunion with the Creator by annihilating the curse of death.

Jesus was of the chosen people, one relatively small ethnicity or nation among hundreds of nations around the world. At the time that He lived wise Greeks and powerful Romans were the more advanced in the world than the Jews. When the Greeks came to visit Jesus, He knew the world was ripe. The bud of uniqueness was blossoming and soon nation after nation, and all peoples would be offered the opportunity to join the universal multicultural people of God. But first the person had to want to follow Jesus, be washed clean in baptism, and be fed His body and blood, and finally experience Step Three.

Three: Pentecost.

Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the incarnation of the Creator of the universe, the re-uniter of humanity with God, the annihilator of death, having returned to His heavenly Kingdom, sealed the reunion with God (who is the giver of life - hence becoming ALIVE in all caps) not just with the Jews, His chosen people, but through Jesus with all of humankind. Having been made in God’s image and likeness, humankind, like God who is free and sovereign, must also be free and sovereign. So, this reunion must be by the will of the human who may also be drawn, but not forced into union with God. We must want to be ALIVE.

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me.”  Then some of His disciples said to one another, “What does He mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me,’ and ‘because I am going to the Father’?”

Jesus knew what they wanted to ask Him, so He said to them, “… I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.  When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.  On that day you will ask nothing of Me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.  Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” John 16:16-18

“If you love  Me, you will keep My commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him because He abides with you, and He will be in you. In a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you also will LIVE.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  They who have My commandments (the law) and keep them are those who love Me, and those who love Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love them and reveal Myself to them.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”  Jesus answered him, “Those who love Me will keep My word, and My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them.  Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.  “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.  You heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe.  I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me.” John: 14:16-30

…

Fifty days after God freed His chosen people from their slavery in Egypt and they passed through the Red Sea as if on land, Moses brought down from Sinai where he met and spoke with God, the Ten Commandments. Moses relayed the Torah and the Law to the people. Step One to the restoration of our relationship with God, our Father.

Fifty days after Jesus  (His only begotten Son, light of light, true God of true God) overcame death, crashing through the curse, He completed the possibility of humankind’s reunion with our Father.

One Two Three. The Law. Jesus. Pentecost. Full Circle.

Pentecost. The finishing touch of reunion. Body, Blood, and Spirit of God renews the “volunteer” with the purity and strength of God. Unity. Love. Trust. LIFE.

Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit descending on those to whom It has been granted, in order to worship God in Spirit and in Truth is to live fully ALIVE.

Can it be a coincidence that the Passover and the Crucifixion are linked, followed by the handing down of the Law fifty days after Passover and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the resurrection? Impossible. It is a message that  reveals God’s plan from the beginning for immortal life of free human beings. Chosen and choosing.

It’s about return to the garden of Eden and reaching the tree of life planted in the center surrounded by the twirling flames. Genesis 3:24 “He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden He placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.”

First Jesus, and then we, crash through the sword flaming and turning to reach the tree of life. This is what it means to be ALIVE. Men and women throughout time, even during the long period before Jesus appeared, and only the Law and the Prophets were the guides, yet the Jews carried the torch, walking through the cold dark world they walked into sunrise. Son-rise.

Genesis quotes God as saying that the day begins at sunset and gradually the sun rises and brings daylight. So too the law and the prophets were as the moonlight, until the Son of God heralded the sunshine by offering union with God through the Holy Spirit.

ALIVE: The Beginning.

June 23, 2024